Lion City: Singapore & Modern Asia

Book Title: Lion City: Singapore & Modern Asia
ISBN: 9780349144481
By Author(s):JEEVAN VASAGAR
By Publisher:LITTLE BROWN
Format:PB

A compelling, illuminating and evocative history of Singaporethe world’s most successful city-state.

In 1965, Singapore’s GDP per capita was on a par with Jordan. Now it has outstripped Japan. After the Second World War and a sudden rupture with newly formed Malaysia, Singapore found itself independent – and facing a crisis. It took the bloody-minded determination and vision of Lee Kuan Yew, its founding premier, to take a small island of diverse ethnic groups with a fragile economy and hostile neighbours and meld it into Asia’s first globalised city.

Lion Cityexamines the different faces of Singaporean life – from education and health to art, politics and demographic challenges – and reveals how in just half a century, Lee forged a country with a buoyant economy and distinctive identity. It explores the darker side of how this was achieved too; through authoritarian control that led to it being dubbed ‘Disneyland with the death penalty’.

Jeevan Vasagar, former Singapore correspondent for theFinancial Times, masterfully takes us through the intricate history, present and future of this unique diamond-shaped island one degree north of the equator, where new and old have remained connected.Lion Cityis a personal, insightful and definitive guide to the city, and how its extraordinaryrise is shaping East Asia and the rest of the world.